


Ruddy

by theministerskat



Series: Kat's Other Outlander Tales [4]
Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, book: drums of autumn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 00:17:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16186151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theministerskat/pseuds/theministerskat
Summary: Brianna always wondered where, or who, her red hair came from.





	Ruddy

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt submitted to @otheroutlandertales by anonymous over on Tumblr: Was there a moment when Brianna was growing up that she had an "am I adopted?" moment?

Brianna tossed over onto her side, the pallet bed was lumpy beneath her, and sleep slipped from her grasp.

 

The anticipation and excitement of finding her biological father - of finding Jamie Fraser, of seeing her mother again, had completely occupied her mind. She hadn’t thought  of Frank Randall, the father she had known most of her life. But now that her journey had come to an end and she was safe on Fraser’s Ridge, her head and her heart felt like a battlefield. Her thoughts wandered back to her childhood, dreamed of new memories waiting to be made, and landed on the unanswered questions that had always been there but she had been too scared to face. 

 

Trying to get comfortable, she rolled over to lie her back. Her unbound hair rustled against the pillow, and a loose strand fell across her face. Brianna reached up to brush it back, but stopped when the glow from the banked fire hit it. 

 

She had loved her red hair as a young girl; being the only one at her school with such a color adorning her head, she had been unique, standing out amongst all the brunettes and blondes around her.

 

_ Brianna sat across from her father at the large wooden desk in his office at Harvard. She spent most of her school day afternoons with him, completing homework, while he was occupied with some assignment or another. They didn’t talk much, simply happy to sit together in companionable silence. _

 

_ She ran a hand through her hair, brushing back stray locks that had fallen across her forehead. She twisted a wavy length around a finger, bringing it to rest over her shoulder. The late afternoon sun came in through the window and caught the color for an instant and her hair shone like gold. Bree looked up at her father. _

 

_ “Daddy, did your mama have red hair, like me?”  _

 

_ He didn’t glance up from the papers he was grading, though she saw his body stiffen at her question. His eyebrows drew together, an expression she had seen many times as he puzzled over some difficult piece of historical matter. She thought, perhaps, it was due to a memory of his own mother that she had roused in him, and felt guilty that her inquiry may be causing him pain.  _

 

_ Her father slowly lifted his head and met her eyes, his face soft with love and admiration for her. _

 

_ “No, sweetie. My mother had brown hair; all my family did.” He smiled, and the fear that she’d upset him diminished. “I believe you got that beautifully, ruddy mop from your- from your other side of the family.” _

 

_ She nodded and bent back to her schoolwork. _

 

* * *

 

_ They sat in the living room together watching a show on the television. _

 

_ “Mama, did anyone in your family have red hair?” _

 

_ Her mother didn’t answer her right away, her body stiffening, like Daddy’s had. When she turned to face Brianna, she had a smile on her face but there was a sadness in those whisky-colored eyes that had not been there before.  _

 

_ “No one in my family had red hair before you, darling.” Her mother reached out a hand to her, smoothing down the flowing waves that had sprung from her headband. “You get it from your father’s side of the family.” _

 

_ She hadn’t asked who it came from, but her mother said it with a certainty and a tone that hit Brianna square in the chest. Her  _ father _ , uttered in a way that she had never heard from her mother before.  _

 

_ She looked towards the wall where the full-length mirror hung and she saw her own image staring back at her. She flicked her gaze upwards, seeing her parents, caught in the same reflection: her mother perched on the sofa, her father reaching for his pipe from his favorite armchair. Her mother’s thumb caressed the silver ring on her right hand, then her index finger traced the scar at the base of her thumb. She caught a look pass between them, a worried frown on Daddy’s face and a bold, unblinking stare in return from her mother. She searched, but she couldn’t find a single feature she shared with either of her parents.  _

 

Brianna sighed, recalling that moment when she had begun to question exactly where she had come from. She had wished she had been born with the brown tones that crowned her parents, something- anything- that would connect her to them. She had buried all questioning thoughts deep in her mind for years, actively stifling any kind of doubt that ever tried to invade thoughts, terrified of what was hidden between the glances her parents had shared that night. 

 

Then her mother told her about Jamie Fraser,  _ her father _ . The father her mother had been speaking of years ago, the redhead of the family. If she was being honest, it was a relief to finally know, to have uncovered the connection between the part of herself she loved so much and another person. And here she was, traveling through time and across oceans to meet him, desperate to know everything else they shared. 

 

But as she turned to her side once more, she thought again of Frank Randall. He’d loved her as his own, nurtured her, supported her dreams. Would he understand her need to know? Forgive the sense of excitement and belonging she felt when she looked into Jamie Fraser’s eyes? The answer came to her almost immediately.

 

“Thank you, Daddy,” she whispered into the night  and sleep finally settled over her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for taking the time to read this wee story.
> 
> If you would like to submit a prompt to Other Outlander Tales, or check out any of our other stories, you can do so by visiting me and the other mods over on Tumblr at otheroutlandertales.tumblr.com.


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